US student arrested over shooting threat

HOUSTON - A student was arrested Friday for allegedly threatening to shoot inside a school in the US state of Oklahoma, local media reported.

Police arrested Sammy Chavez, 18, in the early morning at a residence in west Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on an arrest warrant for threats to kill, according to local TV channel FOX23.

Bartlesville police said officials from Bartlesville High School reported that a student talked about "planning a shooting at the school" on Thursday morning.

Officers began an immediate search for the suspect, who was not at school on Thursday, and located him at a residence in Bartlesville early Friday morning, according to the report.

According to court documents, the suspect tried to recruit other students to assist him in a plot to lure other students into the school auditorium, shut the doors and shoot them.

Student witnesses also reported that the teenager claimed he would place bombs by the school doors.

Police believed he was trying to obtain a map or blueprint of the school. He reportedly told a teacher that he had recently purchased a gun and would use it to shoot over the weekend.

"We are extremely pleased that our students were never in harm's way," said school superintendent Gary W. Quinn.

Bartlesville police said the incident is still under investigation and they currently have no further details.

The arrest came on the same day when an elementary school shooting left 20 children and 8 adults dead in the US state of Connecticut, the second deadliest in US history only next to the Virginia Tech Massacre in April 2007, which claimed 33 lives.